Tomas Francis was penalised for the incident with Dan Cole at Twickenham but a Six Nations disciplinary committee has since decided it was a red card offence.
Photograph: David Davies/PA

The Wales and Exeter prop Tomas Francis has been banned for eight weeks for “recklessly” putting his hand near the eyes of his England opposite number, Dan Cole, in their defeat at Twickenham last Saturday. He will miss the match against Italy in Cardiff on Saturday, having been named on the bench, and will not be available for the Chiefs again this season, unless they make the Premiership play-offs.

Francis was cited for the offence which was referred at the time by the referee, Craig Joubert, to the television match official. They decided to leave it to the disciplinary process because only one camera angle was made available and the prop had his case heard in London on Tuesday.

Wales’ Tomas Francis cited for incident with England’s Dan Cole

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A three-man panel found that his action had been reckless and warranted a red card. He was suspended for 12 weeks, which mitigating factors cut by four, and will be available to play again on 9 May, two days after the end of the regular Premiership season. He will also miss Exeter’s European Champions Cup quarter-final at Wasps next month. He has the right to appeal.

The Wales head coach, Warren Gatland, had named Francis on the bench because, having initially thought the forward’s offence looked serious, changed his mind after reviewing the incident. “I looked at it first in slow motion,” he said, “but when you play it in real time the contact is a third of a second. It does not look to me that he has specifically gone for someone. He closed his eyes and tried to clear George Kruis from the top of Cole. If you are going to be grabbing someone’s face or going for the eyes, it is going to take longer than one third of a second.”

Gatland was speaking after rationing himself to four changes after the defeat against England which left Wales playing for second place. Three were enforced with the captain, Sam Warburton, the second-row Alun Wyn Jones, who is likely to be out of action for six weeks, and the wing Alex Cuthbert all injured. The fourth is at scrum-half, where Rhys Webb returns. In the absence of Warburton and Jones the captaincy goes to Dan Lydiate for the first time.

“Alun Wyn has played with a foot injury since before the Six Nations and he has only been at 80 per cent,” said Gatland. “The medics think he needs to rest for six weeks and we want to make sure he is fit and fresh for the summer tour to New Zealand. Sam suffered a head injury against England and we do not want to risk him.”

While England secured the title before the final round, so Italy took the wooden spoon after another campaign in which they have struggled. Gatland believes that in the coming years the Six Nations will need to look at whether the side that finishes bottom of the championship should play off against the champions of the European Nations Cup, commonly called Six Nations B. This year’s B title will be decided on Saturday when Georgia host Romania in Tbilisi before a crowd of more than 50,000. Gatland said he was not being disrespectful of Italy but thinking about the development of the game in Europe.

“A number of questions have been asked about Italy but they deserve to be in the Six Nations and have contributed to it,” the Wales coach said, “even if they have not been as consistent as they would have liked. If the second tier continues to improve, then for the development of the game in Europe maybe in years to come there is an opportunity for the top team to play the bottom side in the Six Nations in a play-off. It should not be a straight one-up, one-down because a side coming up has to be better than the one coming down.”

Dan Lydiate captains Wales against Italy in place of injured Sam Warburton